So far, the Indian team has been faring well in every format of cricket. After playing continuously for the two to three years, current skipper Virat Kohli will be rested for the ODI series against Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma who made a comeback into Test matches after two years will be leading the team no on. This popular opener dearly called the ‘Hitman’ who made a century in the second Test, was earlier announced as vice-captain of the side and will now get his chance to captain the side.
On the other hand, Hardik Pandya, who was rested for the Test series returns to the squad for the three-match ODI series that begins on December 10. Earlier, just ahead of the first Test against Sri Lanka, he said: “Definitely, I do need a rest. Why not? When I think of the time when my body needs to be rested, I’ll ask for it. I am not a robot, you can slice my skin and check, I bleed.”
On the other hand, there is a speculation that this sudden announcement from Kohli is somehow related to his inconvenient relationship with BCCI. Earlier, slamming BCCI, Kohli has said, “Reflecting on the first Test against Sri Lanka, where a green-turf was prepared to get the player a glimpse of how the situation will be in South Africa. And everyone starts judging players when results come after Test matches. It should be a fair game, where we get to prepare the way we want to and then we are entitled to be criticized.”
“Yes (we requested for the pace-friendly wickets), because unfortunately, we get only two days before we fly to South Africa after this series gets over. So we have no choice but be in a game situation and think of what’s coming ahead of us. Had we got a month off ideally, we would have done a proper preparation for a camp sort of scenario. But we have to sort of make do with what we have,” said Kohli on Thursday.
“As usual, cramped for time, which I think we need to assess in future because we very easily assess the team when we go abroad, but we don’t look at how many days we got to prepare before we go to a particular place to play. Everyone starts judging players when results come after Test matches. It should be a fair game, where we get to prepare the way we want to and then we are entitled to be criticized,” he highlighted.
However, it is better if we didn’t jump to any conclusions unless a valid statement comes from Kohli.
Out of three match test series, the first one will be played at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala. The second and third ODI will take place at Mohali and Visakhapatnam on December 13 and 17.
The updated Squad after certain modifications is as below:
Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddharth Kaul
Related Article: Virat Kohli Slams BCCI: Too Much Cricket, No Time to Prepare For SA Tour